An aspiring writer dealing with life and chronic illness

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Inspiration or Lack of It

I have this problem quite frequently. Sometimes I’m really inspired, and the words flow freely through my pen. Well, metaphorically speaking since I type my stories out on a keyboard XD Other times, it feels like I have to pull each word out of my mind, a painstaking process.

Right now I’m working on a short story, and the first third to half of it I wrote pretty fast. The other parts of it are just being really difficult. The problem is that you can’t create inspiration. You can’t make up something that doesn’t exist. So I write, and rewrite, and rewrite, hoping to find that spark again. Sometimes reading helps me think of my own story in a new light. The problem is that this is a short story, so word choice really matters. I know the story. I have no problem coming up with that, but turning a scene with two people under a starry night into a magical moment that matches the thoughts in my head is the tough part. Although it can’t be too magical because I’m trying to keep this story rated PG XD The other issue is not writing awkward or purple prose, which is sometimes worse than writing nothing at all. It’s coming along better today than it was yesterday.

Also, I changed Bella’s name to Emma because my friend made me realize I was coming dangerously close to describing Bella from Twilight XD I saw this female character as having pale skin for some reason, and dark hair. I’ve never read Twilight, so I didn’t make the connection until my friend told me. Well, it’s blonde now. The pale skin was more important to me than the haircolor. And I still have no idea what I’m going to title this suicide story. Dandelions are prevalent throughout, but Flowers for ________ sounds way too similar to the title of the short story, “Flowers For Algernon.” I’m bad at coming up with titles.

If anyone would like to share, what do you do when the inspiration disappears?

I experience the same things that you do. What I do sometimes is take a break from that story/poem and write something else. I come back to it afterwards. Or, if you have trouble connecting certain parts, I tend to free write in-between them (they usually aren’t as great haha) but that gives me some direction. Best of luck. I also think that Emma is a lovely name 🙂

Thanks for the good advice Floresypaz ^^ Well, it’s a series of snippets. It starts off with a man killing himself then goes into his memories, delusions/nightmares, and reality. I’m stuck with his perception of hell, him and her in the moonlight, her accident, and their reunion. Earlier today I felt inspired to write the “hell” part but I’m not feeling it for the other parts. I don’t know why heaven was so much easier to write than hell, but it was XD I reread the part about them under the moonlight and they sounded more like strangers than lovers I think working on something else is a good idea. Might help. I like the name Emma too 🙂

Yeah, it sounds like you’re working with lots of interesting themes. I’m excited to see how your story turns out! 🙂 and ahh, I think it’s normal that you had an easier time writing the heaven piece–much of people’s energies/dreams/etc have focused on heaven instead of hell because that’s where they themselves would like to end up. And about making them sounding like strangers, maybe if you describe their interaction with longing, the familiarity between them, their unwillingness to break away from that interaction.. it might help (just offering some ideas for you to bounce off of, if you still need them). But best of luck! I look forward to reading it 🙂 x

I didn’t realize that XD Yes, I have definitely thought more about heaven than hell. I try not to think about hell because it scares me :$ I depicted it as a void instead of the traditional fire and brimstone because I felt like it XD Trying to make complete darkness scary was actually difficult, especially because I’m not really scared of the dark. . . Thanks for the tips about romance. I really struggle with it XD Obviously this piece isn’t romance, but I have to make their love and devotion believable for the story to work. I’m keeping it rated PG since I want to submit it to contests and publications later. Thanks for the tips ^^

It’s funny that you mention that because I was thinking similar thoughts. I have a fantasy story that is over 200,000 words and I don’t get hung up on words or metaphors. I guess with shorter stories you don’t get to know the characters as well, and word choice matters a lot more. Thank you for the kind thoughts 🙂

Inspiration is so fickle. It is s frustrating to lose it in the middle of a story, but somtimes a step away helps. Your character name and description situation has happened to me. It is strange how something we’ve picked up somewhere can come through in our writing without us knowing it. I am confident the other pieces ofthe story will fall into place!

Thanks for your words of wisdom Janna 🙂 Good to know I’m not alone. I’m writing a fantasy story that’s about 200k now, and I never got this hung up on it. Perhaps it’s because the characters feel more real. I’m not really sure I’ll try working on something else and coming back to it. Yeah, I actually never read Twilight. But I had heard the description of Bella being super pale with dark hair. I didn’t make the connection till my friend pointed it out. I know a little girl named Bella, so that’s where I got the name. And this girl is pale with brown hair XD I saw the girl as being pale for some reason. I was super pale as a kid. Still am. One of my friends thought I was an angel upon meeting me for the first time. We were 10, and she was serious XD